


The Maiden, the Wife, the Lady

by Ilthit



Category: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Post-Canon, Spooky, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 02:04:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20987027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilthit/pseuds/Ilthit
Summary: They say the ladies came back from the Other Lands haunted.





	The Maiden, the Wife, the Lady

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Isilloth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isilloth/gifts).

They say the ladies of Mr Strange and Sir Walter Pole came back from the Other Lands haunted. Few have the opportunity to observe either lady, as Arabella Strange is held in the close and protective embrace of her friends, spending season after season in the quiet of the country, whereas Lady Pole arrives and departs like a storm, leaving devastation and scandal in her wake. She is very much abroad these days, and has acquired continental habits of passionate speech and indecorous politics. 

Of course, these days the old roads are open, and more than one long-lost relative has returned home, along with frauds claiming to be one's great-great-uncle. Some end up on the streets, pale wispy things drained by their experiences, their memories of their old lives a collection of details, like a box of interesting pebbles of no real value. However one is rarely curious about vagabonds and riff-raff. Lady Pole is of a very decent pedigree, and Mrs Strange the wife of one of the greatest men of the budding century. How romantic to think they will forever be carrying the signs of what they have gone through! Seduced by fairies! Fete'd by the kings of Hell! The details are never quite the same, but what is agreed upon is that it must have been harrowing. 

Considering the interest, it is likely to be mere rumour when they say Mrs Strange speaks to empty space on occasion, or that her Ladyship's footsteps grow frosty even in spring; that Mrs Strange can spend hours in front of one particular mirror, or that Lady Pole's would-be attackers get struck down with chills, grow pale, their hair white before its time. 

And then there is that little lady magician, Flora Greysteel...

On the eve of November, a man might pass by the house her Ladyship bought in the country and see three shadows moving in the candlelight; the turnip-lanterns lit at the gates, and a stinging electricity in the air, and one might wonder what exactly it was that came back from Faerie's hills.


End file.
